This Month's 2024 Extreme Budget Grocery Spending – October

 

At the beginning of the month my refrigerator looked pretty slim inside, but this was actually a very good thing.  What it told me is that I had done a really good job using up and eating the fresh food I had on hand and didn’t allow it to go to waste.  I even dwindled down some of the condiments.  I had a few corn tortillas and a dozen flour tortillas in the bread drawer.  I also had half a pound of butter, a pint of cream, a pint of homemade vanilla yogurt, two blocks of cream cheese, half a jar of grated parmesan, a little bit of sour cream and a dozen eggs.  My chickens have stopped laying now so I’ll likely need to start buying eggs at the store pretty soon.

 

Slim pickings means zero food waste! 👏

A few eggs & some dairy on the top shelf
I keep leftovers on the middle shelf - all eaten! 😋
Potatoes and my bread baking supplies on the bottom

Steadily making my way through the condiments
Progress is progress!

In the produce drawer I didn’t have much left after all of the cooking, baking and canning I had done.  However, I did have a fully loaded apple tree and a bucket of pears in the pantry as well as a container of tomatoes ripening so a good amount of fresh produce to start this month off with.  I also had an abundance of frozen and canned fruits and vegetables in the freezer and pantry, not to mention all that I had canned and put up in the LTFS.

 

A great deal on a quart of cream plus a pint
of pickled asparagus from one of the ladies at the senior center

I did not do any shopping the last two weeks of September and I didn’t really need to go the first week of this month either, however Albertsons offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse.  A digital coupon for a quart of heavy whipping cream (I use this in my coffee for my 10:00 coffee break each day) for $5.39 plus a $5 OFF a $5 Purchase digital coupon, made this purchase only 39¢!  Yes please and thank you very much!

 

My big grocery shop this month at Winco
plus a 3# package of peppered bacon from Fred Meyer

That same week I had a short list of pantry staples to get for my LTFS so I stopped at Winco on the way home from work one day and picked up those items.  I also picked up a half gallon of organic milk and a tub of sour cream.  I plan to make another batch of homemade yogurt with the milk.  On the way home from Winco I stopped into Fred Meyer to pick up a loss leader item which was a 3# package of peppered bacon.  I ended up dividing the bacon up and vacuum sealing it in portions before tucking it away in the freezer.

 

Two pound bag of cheese for $1.99!

The next week when the ads changed Albertson’s offered me another $5 OFF a $5 Purchase digital coupon so I used that to pick up a two pound package of Monterey Jack cheese.  It was on sale for $6.99 but after using the digital coupon I only paid $1.99.

 

Five pound bag of potatoes for just under a dollar!

When the Albertson’s ads changed again I redeemed the rewards points I’d accumulated for a $1 OFF Any Purchase digital coupon.  I stopped on my way home from work once again to pick up five pound bag of red potatoes on sale for 1.99.  After the digital coupon I spent 99¢ out of pocket for the potatoes.

 

Lots of fresh homegrown produce helps a lot!

Although I made quite a few trips in and out of the grocery stores over the period of a couple weeks I didn’t really do a lot of shopping this month.  I do feel the extra trips to use certain digital coupon offers and rewards points paid off and was well worth it just to go in and get one single item each time.  I netted three pounds of bacon, a quart of cream, two pounds of cheese and a 5# bag of red potatoes for the rock bottom price of only $12.34.  Those were some really good deals!  Too good to pass up in my opinion, not to mention very helpful in managing to work within an extreme grocery budget.

 

I am pretty happy with this month's tally! 😍

My final total for food this month came in at $48.32 and I still have a little bit leftover to roll into next month’s budget!  Whoo hooo!  What do you think?